in fell. Bill drew
a chair and moodily stared out into the whirling wet landscape.

All day the storm raged and Bill, worried and irresolute, sought Ernest.
It was not until supper time that he found him.

He had shut himself in the clubroom over the grill and had been boning
for an examination. Mess over, they wandered out on the terrace. The
storm was over, completely and wholly. The air was clear, the sky
cloudless. A gentle breeze fanned them. Trolley wires, telephone poles
and trees lay in every direction, with here and there a rolled-up tin
roof. It had been bad enough while it lasted.

"Come over here by the tennis court," suggested Bill. "I want to talk to
you. A lot of things have happened in the last few weeks, and I don't
know what to make of them."

"Fire ahead if I can help," said Ernest.

Bill commenced his story with the influence Jardin seemed to have over
Frank and concluded with what he had seen in the hangar.

"What's the game?" he demanded at last.

"I can't guess unless he wants Jardin to get so disgusted that he will
give him the plane. Has Frank any money?" asked Ernest.

"He had a present from a friend of ours when we came," said Bill, "but
most of that has been frittered away. Besides that, he hasn't a cent
although he goes strutting around as though he had a little private wad
to draw on. But I know he hasn't any. Where would _he_ get money? His
folks have only their army pay."

"It surely is funny about that plane," said Ernest. "I never saw a chap
so crazy about flying, but he can't expect to get a plane like that for
nothing, and yet what you saw looks suspiciously as though he was up to
some scheme. What sort of a chap was he at home?"

"Not bad," replied Bill generously. "There was a lot of things I didn't
like about him, but I never suspected he would do anything underhanded.
Why, he might kill Jardin, monkeying that way with the plane!"

"He is determined not to harm him," said Ernest. "Everything that has
happened to the plane has been of a nature that has made it impossible
to get it off the ground. So Jardin is safe for the present at least. I
think I will manage to secrete myself in that hangar to-morrow morning.
I don't believe we had better tell anyone about this, Bill; it would
stir up such a fuss. The plane is in perfect order now. I saw Tom a
little while ago and he has it tuned up to perfection. In the meantime I
think I will seek our friend Jardin and sound him a l